Katharós
by kadeccasinclair
Summary: Ever since the massacre when her best friend was taken by strange men and her parents murdered, Riley Matthews has been struggling. Just as she begins her junior year, another event begins seemingly so similar to what happened all those years past. There are shadows scrambling to find her and, when they do, the world better hope that it isn't them. Greek Mythology AU
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys!

As many of you know, I'm currently working on Summer Rain and I haven't been the absolute best updater, but I'm working on cranking out a new chapter. However, I just got this idea all of a sudden and I just _had_ to get it out.

The whole idea is based on an enhanced person AU that dealt with the ever so expansive knowledge of Greek mythology. Let me give you the gist of everything so it makes more sense:

Ever since the massacre when she saw her best friend taken from her by strange men and her parents murdered, Riley Matthews has been living in foster homes. She doesn't know what permanent means and, even though she acts like it doesn't faze her, the remnants of her parents still haunt her. Just as she begins her junior year, another event happens with the beginning similar to the massacre she had endured all those years past. What she doesn't know is that shadows are lurking and scrambling to find her and, when they do, the world better hope that it isn't _them_. Or the supernatural descendant from Greek Gods AU no one asked for.

In this story, Riley will be 16 years old. Maya will be seventeen, Farkle and Lucas will be eighteen, and Josh will be twenty. The story will mostly be in Riley's point of view except for the prologue, which will be from Josh's point of view. (I am the worst continuity author ever to live, don't hold this against me). Tell me if you like it and if I should continue!

Xoxo,

Kadecca

* * *

 **Six Years Ago:**

There were screams all around me, the haunted voices shrieking in indistinguishable chants. In every crevice of each hallway and curve of the wall laid textured paintings of deep, rich red. Splatters of suffering and of wails cut short were ubiquitous and interminable. As we walked down the darkened, bloodied hallway of gruesome death, I could smell the stench of dead flesh.

My body felt numb. The skin and nerves of the tips of my fingers tingled and shook. I had seen massacres at the hand of Dikaiosýni before, but never had I seen something so horrible. So heart wrenching.

I couldn't seem to escape the hollowed vision, the flurries of sounds. A tear dropped down my cheek faster than I could react and, as I heard the cries of little ones who would never see their parents again, I almost felt down in despair. What good was government funding, what good was EPSU if we couldn't save them? If we couldn't save the hundreds of innocents slain just because of Dikaiosýni sick cause? Just because they wanted to find one Apógonos?

I was an Apógonos of Morpheus, a rare descendent of a non-god. I had surpassed all expectations for an Apógonos of a minor god or Titan, I had been the top of my class despite the prejudices against my kind. I had endured humiliation when I was younger by Apógonos of Zeus at least twenty times in my life but…looking at the heartbroken faces, I was lucky. Some of these kids hadn't even been given a shot at life. These parents couldn't see their children grow up, and most of them couldn't even grow old.

Dikaiosýni meant justice and, if this was justice, this world was beyond salvation. This...there was no excuse for these deaths. This was cold blooded war against what was most definitely a sanctuary of peace and security,,

"Josh…Josh."

My head snapped over to Missy as the blur on my vision cleared. My hands slowly unclenched and I walked over to where she was pointing. We were in the fifth grade hallway of the school, past most of the initial deaths.

 _I had found them with gaping holes where chests and hearts used to be. I had found children with broken limbs across the room, had seen them ripped apart, had seen their heads severed from their body._

"Josh, I know this is hard. I know, ok?" Her voice was pleading and desperate and I could see the tears falling down. She was a cold and emotionally callous girl; she wasn't this unraveling one in front of me. We had seen so much and this…if there was something that could've done it, this had broken us.

 _Hundreds dead. Children. And I can't do a single damn thing._

"But Josh, we need to find the child. They came here to find a child. They have been looking for _the child_ , for the _Katharós_." My eyes widened at the mention of the name. The most important name in a world in which Dikaiosýni was gaining power so quickly. The name in which the end of the modern era seemed as if it was closing before we could shut the door. If we let it get out of hand, the Gods would intervene and they would sweep the whole world's population with a flick of their wrists. There'd be mass casualties, deaths, until not a single child stood standing.

But how could they have found him? How could they have found the Katharós before the EPSU did, and how could they have known who he was?

 _There's a chance they didn't get to him._

"We need to find him. Now. You take left wing and I'll take the right."

The second her footsteps left the corridor, I was alone again. Me, the remaining survivors of the remnants of Creekside Elementary, and the dead bodies littered across the floor and under my feet.

I heard a quiet sound and, when I snapped my head over to one of the classroom windows, I saw a movement through the shattered glass. The Dikaiosýni better hope that they weren't still in the building because, if they were, I wouldn't just let them get away with death. I'd kill them in agony, make them see that the ones they loved had been slain in the most horrible way right in front of them, and then end them.

I moved with purpose, my hands lighting up with the dark energy coursing through my veins. They unraveled from my stomach and I pushed them forward-

I heard a soft whimper from the other side of the classroom.

"Mommy?"

The energy faded as everything seemed to be sucked from the room. My world spun once more, and I had to hold onto a desk to gain control.

"Daddy?"

A strangled sound came from under the desks.

"Mommy, don't sleep! Maya, Daddy, and I need you." I walked slowly towards the sound, my step faltering when I saw the scene.

Two adults laid on the ground right next to each other, their faces young and drained. Both had brown hair and one of them must have been so beautiful before, but that wasn't what stood out to me. Their hands were intertwined still, even when it was so clear that the battle was over.

A little bundle of brown lie next to who I presumed to be her mother. Her eyes, beautiful and large eyes, were full of panic as they met mine. Her eyes captivated me, pushed all the desperate need into me. I nearly fainted.

Her expression changed drastically, turning from despair to anger and fierce protectiveness. Her eyes nervously swayed from me, as if she was sizing me up, and the floor-

A blonde tangle and mess of a girl was on the ground... _please tell me that the Dikaiosýni_ _didn't just slaughter the girl's friend and parents in front of her._ They had a sick sense of justice, a sick sense that almost always left witnesses driven insane by their experiences in losing their loved ones, but they wouldn't do this. They wouldn't just leave her to see the wreckage.

"I'm not here to hurt you, ok?" I put my hands up in a surrender position, carefully moving towards her knife. It was almost laughable if not for the situation; the knife was just the plastic ones from the cafeteria. She was holding it so that she was vulnerable herself, but she was completely blockading anyone from touching the blonde girl.

Her tense stance didn't let up a single inch. Her face was drenched with tears and, despite her earlier words, I knew she understood the situation. I knew that she had seen her parents be killed, and I knew that she knew they were dead. I was just praying to the heavens that I could check if the blonde was healable. I wasn't a healer, but I knew enough to delay death until the ambulance got here.

"Please…I just want to make sure she's okay," I said, pointing at the ground next to her. I could see the indecision, the confusion, the shock, and all of her emotions compiling on one another.

 _She didn't deserve this._

"What's your name?"

Her hold on her knife wavered. "Ri-Riley."

I swallowed to keep myself in control, and I felt an unconscious and strained smile reach my face. She needed some of my strength. "Riley, I need to check to see if your friend is okay. I can help her, Riley, but if you don't let me past I can't help her."

Riley looked down at the girl and she silently brushed some blonde hair from a pale forehead. There wasn't a trace of force on the girl and, hopefully, she was just knocked unconscious. "Peaches," she whispered, "I'm going to get you help, ok? I'll make sure that you are okay."

Riley swallowed forcibly, and she cautiously put down the plastic knife. Clearly against her better judgement, she nodded, and let me past. There was no trace of happiness on her face but, when she glanced over at the blonde, there was so much love. It was noticeable to see that she was avoiding contact with the two bodies next to her and the stench of vomit across the room clearly traced back to Riley.

I could have gotten past Riley in less than a second but I couldn't let her know what I did. I didn't want to do it, I really didn't, but I knew I didn't have a choice. As part of my damned Morpheus "blessing", I could read auras. Every Apógonos was in danger at this point, and the girl with an aura so bright and yellow was no exception to that. Her aura almost blended in with her hair and I could practically see it mending her injuries.

Here was the cold, hard truth.

I had to take the girl whom Riley had referred to as "Peaches" back to EPSU. Riley didn't have the same aura; in fact, all she had was a dismal, gray human one. I couldn't take a human back to EPSU just because an Apógonos was their best friend. I couldn't, and I most definitely couldn't endanger Riley.

"Her name is Maya." Riley stuttered out, falling next to me. I had taken a seat next to her, falsely poking around to keep any alarm from reaching Riley. Her body was so tense, and I could see the exhaustion around her. My job would be easier, then.

I looked at Riley and cautiously put my hand on her shoulder. I felt her flinch back, but the muscles under my hand relaxed with every second past. "Riley, I need you to be strong. Can you do that for me?"

Her eyes drooped down slower. "I will be. For Maya."

"What does Maya love to do?" I said, my voice slowing. I could feel my energy reaching Riley already and, even though I felt bad for tearing her from her best friend, she deserved some sleep. She needed a peaceful separation from Maya and I'd ensure that her dreams and her sleep would be calming enough.

 _The poor kid. She'll wake up an orphan._

Riley smiled weakly before more tears slipped out of her eyes - so many I thought she might have known what I was going to do before I thought back to the fact that she was just a mere mortal. She couldn't know.

"She loves to paint." A dreamy look was pasted on her. The hold of sleep was strengthening with every second even with my restraining on my powers to the point where it was almost painful. But I didn't care; Riley was all that mattered right now. She was a survivor, and she needed hope. "She loves art."

A ghost of a smile quirked the sides of my lips up for a very short, ephemeral fraction of time. "Maya needs to go to the paintshop with her mommy. She'll be back, Riley." The lie hung so low on my tongue.

"Just rest, Riley, and she'll be here."

Her body slumped to the ground and, seeing where it would land, I quickly caught her. She was cradled in my arms, a small little girl who had seen too many horrors. She deserved so much more and I so wished I could give her that...but I didn't have that luxury.

As I crumpled my outer jacket for her to use as a blanket and stacked the cloth as a pillow for her delicate head, I kissed her on the forehead.

With both arms carrying Maya out the door, I looked back at Riley. Her body was so still and calm that any passerby would think she was just napping, that she was just too tired from the day's work. She would be beautiful when she grew older.

"Be strong, Riley. Να είσαι δυνατός."

With that, I left the room and, only two minutes later, the school of death.

* * *

That's it! Tell me if you liked it, if you want me to continue on this or only continue on with Summer Rain. Unlike Summer Rain, the ships in this story are definitely undecided. Choose and pick and leave it all in the reviews!

I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it!

Xoxo,

Kadecca


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys!

I really hope you guys like this chapter of Katharós. I'm just getting into the beauty of the story which will end up being a lot darker (I mean a lot, lot darker) than I plan Summer Rain to be. Of course, the relationships other than Riley/Lucas (on the other hand, if Maya and Lucas end up being a good pair I am not objecting that and I'll push for Lucaya) are undecided. The pairs from Summer Rain might not be used in this story but, I got to say it, Joshaya is pretty darn cute. Remember, the prologue took place six years ago so by this time, Riley is 16! Everything in italics is her flashbacks or thoughts, but you'll probably get the memo when that comes.

Xoxo,

Kadecca

Present Day

My hands were trembling and I couldn't keep them from shaking even as I tried to steady it against the grave. The stone was clean for the first time in 365 days since I last came, and the flowers besides the grave were so vibrant against the pearl white of the mineral. I had to work overtime for the whole last month for those lilacs Mom used to love so much, but I knew she would've hated the cheap supermarket ones wreaking of wax. A carton of vanilla ice cream was placed on Cory's side of the grave even as some of the overfilled dessert began to spill out in liquid form, smirching the green grass with its white and speckles of black.

I traced the engravings as they moved horizontally, touching every corner and crevice of the letter. _A loving mother, sister, and daughter. A loving father, brother, and son._

I could almost laugh at the awkwardness of the words. The words were so cliche, words that Shawn made up when he paid for the graves and the funeral reception before taking off without even a goodbye as if his own suffering was so much more than mine. They were the words everyone muttered when they went to the funeral, dressed in a color that Mom would have abhorred, sobbing until their lungs seemed to seize up and they were forced to leave. Those were the same words posted on the shrine for all of those killed at Ridgewood that took hours to find my own parents along what seemed to be a miles long row of casualties. _Casualties_. That's all they would call them.

My body shuddered and I fell to the floor, my knees folding until my head rested on the grass next to the stone.

I composed myself before turning to the grave next to them, my hands fumbling for the paper in my pocket. I needed to see him one more time, needed to see his face on this one day before I locked it back up into my bed so that every time I went to bed, I remembered how much I loved him.

I scooted over to his small top, the despair hitting me so many times I couldn't get back up and fight. He hadn't deserved to die; none of them did, but if there was one person who really didn't deserve to die was him. We were supposed to make it through everything together, but he had left me before I had enough heart to make it through. I didn't even know he had died until days after and, once I realized it...it was too late to do anything but lock myself in my room, secluding myself from the people I had that were still alive.

I missed everything about those days. I missed those days when Auggie and I used to play, when my family played games and I could hear my mother's laugh in real person instead of through dreams, and when I used to take the subway to school with Maya. They never proclaimed her to be dead, but I think everyone knew that there was no chance she was still alive. Katy had grieved for months and, still, I knew she still was. She had no closure, after all, and even though she didn't ever say it, I knew she blamed me for it. I knew it from the way she looked at me, that look that just judged me for not being strong enough to fight off that guy who took Maya.

"She's been here for hours. She's officially gone nuts."

"Leave her alone, Rae. It's that time of the year again."

I smiled weakly, the quip of my lips feeling so foreign and so heavy as if my cheeks held up my world. I wouldn't be back for another 365 days, another 8,760 hours. I wouldn't be able to keep myself upright if I kept indulging in those last, happy moments and those beautiful times before calamity.

I pushed myself to the stone, pressing my lips against Auggie's picture. I had chosen that one even when Shawn had told me I had no choice in it, that it was adult business. I had forced him to put my favorite picture of Auggie in it, the one with his favorite dinosaur jacket and that beautiful smile that always lit up my day.

I pulled away, my breath not coming at all. I couldn't cry, no, I couldn't cry. I couldn't dishonor them like that. God knows I had done enough damage to the family name.

"I love you." I whispered into the tombstone. The air stilled around me and the cold breeze left and brushed over my back, the only movement in the early morning. "I miss you every single day, Auggie.

"Goodbye."

I moved one space over to the other grave. I could see the mourners from the _incident_ begin to pour in for the annual mourning ceremony. I hadn't attended a single one; I wasn't planning to. I always went hours before the ceremony began. I couldn't stand seeing those faces, those parents and those children, and faces of those related and those who had loved the ones I had seen die. All I would be able to feel is the immense guilt, the feeling that an injustice happened that day besides the horrid killings.

" _You! You should've done something!" She grabbed the bottom of my dress, pulling me down on the ground. I scrambled to get away from her, from the back of her hand slapping the air in front of me. Her eyes were as puffy as mine, the streaks of the tissue soaking about the tears visible ubiquitously. "You should've saved Matty! He was your friend!"_

 _Someone grabbed her, holding her and keeping her from all out lunging at me. She was the possessed body of a desperate mother and I could not hate her for that, but couldn't she see that I was dying inside too? That I wondered every moment of the day about could-ofs and would-ofs? That I was dying for an answer, an answer the government had so called "answered" as an arbitrary gang attack. Everyone knew it not to be, everyone knew. There was no closure for any of us._

 _I watched as she was pulled away from my spot on the dead grass. She was still screaming, falling into histrionics and fits, screaming at me and calling me names._

" _Why are you just sitting there,_ _στρίγγλα? You devil! You killed them all!"_

" _If you really cared about your ma and your pa and that damned brother you had, you wouldn't just be sitting there?"_

" _Everyone knows you should've died with them!"_

" _Why didn't you save my boy? You stole him away from me!"_

" _Why didn't you save my boy?"_

I touched my head to the cold of the stone. There was something so grounding about being able to touch it, to be able to be reminded of what was, not could haves or would haves, just the facts. The fact was that I had loved Mom and Dad, and the fact stated that they were no longer in my life. It hurt no less knowing I was so close to their final grounds.

"I wish I knew what to do."

I paused, my breath breathing out as wisps of white and gray.

"I wish you guys were here to tell me what to do."

I didn't know anything anymore. I didn't know what I would do every single day once I woke up, and I didn't know how to react to anything anymore.

"God you guys would be so ashamed of me. But I try. I try to make you guys proud, I try to pick myself up every day. But how do you pick yourself up when you don't have a purpose in your life? How do you have a purpose when everyone from your past keeps reminding you of what happened and everyone from your present and future is just as messed up as you?"

"How is it possible that the world keeps moving, keeps spinning, without you guys?"

I shook my head, my body shuddering once more. "I don't know what to do, Mom. I don't know how to fix myself, Dad. I don't know how to live in a world in which I don't miss you guys every second of the day."

I smiled tightly, thinking that maybe there was that small hope that they were watching me from above. Their beautiful faces, the small smiles as they saw me grow, and the perfect place they must be in considering all the good they had done in the world.

"I love you both so, so much and I know you guys and Auggie are somewhere amazing...Goodbye." I pressed my lips to each side of the stone, feeling the air inundate and suffocate me as I pulled away. I needed to get out of there before I did anything I would regret.

"Rae? Caitlyn?" I raised my eyebrow at them, motioning for the car.

"Yeah?"

"Q. Tonight."

* * *

The music moved through me, swaying my body against whoever the hell it was by now. I grabbed his neck and pushed him down, relishing in the heat and covering myself with it. I pushed against him, swaying to the sound of the music overwhelming and destroying whatever thought I had right now. The intoxication within my system pushed all restraint out the door and I did all but slam myself against him.

"I'll get you a Martini for your name." He whispered into my ear, his words chilling me as they touched my nerves.

I turned around to him, my eyebrow raised. He was max in his early 20s with hair ruffled by, most likely, my numerous cases of roaming hands. I smirked, the alcohol within my veins begging myself for more.

"Hit me."

I followed him to the bar, stumbling my way through the bright lights and spotlights blinding my eyes. My high heels clacked under me, my body supporting myself only because of the bodies around me keeping in place. The sound grew further and further and I walked each step to the beat, swaying in a way I knew guys like him wouldn't be able to resist. _They would be so ashamed._

I reached for the drink in his hand, eyes trained on the drink but wandering every few seconds to him. Now that we were out of the dark grinding session, I could finally see who he actually was and judge him on something other than his absolutely astronomical core. He was a mixture of hot and cute with his tousled brown hair that (used to be) swept up in a quiff. His eyebrows- _whew those eyebrows_ -were dark and clear cut in a shape I envied him for. He was so pleasing on the eyes and, because I was wasted although it didn't change the circumstance, my eyes trained on his body and face a lot longer than dignity said.

"Nuh uh, not yet," he pulled the drink from me, keeping it out of my grasp. My face fell but I kept my expression challenging. All my friends knew nothing, absolutely nothing, could keep me from getting my nightly fix. The amount of times they had tried was symmetrical with the amount of black-eyes they had gotten since I first moved into the apartment. "Name."

I rolled my eyes, reaching my hand out once more. I could play the game better than he could. "Yours first."

"Charlie. Charlie Gardner." He said as he moved closer to me. "Now I thought we had a deal, didn't we?"

"Morotia. Morotia Black. Nice to meet you, Charlie. I'm assuming we'll be on a first name basis, am I right? No unprecedented promises?" My voice dripped with sarcasm and, even though I was a few shots from being absolutely wasted, I could see the exact moment the fire was lit within him. I wasn't stupid. I knew I was pretty, not beautiful nor gorgeous, and that the dress accentuating nonexistent curves was ridden up by Rae quite deliberately.

"Of course, Morotia," he said, his tone making it clear that he knew it wasn't my real name but, honestly, who the fuck cared about that in a club? All of the strippers in the club were called fucked up stuff from Candy to Glossy, names I don't think that any parent would ever give to their kid (unless they had a legacy of strippers to satisfy).

I put my hand on his shoulder, brushing it over part of his neck. I had done it so, so many times before. "Now can I have that Martini now? Or, actually, I think a Martini and two extra shots to make up over all that time we wasted with introductions."

I winked at him, pushing him away with the same arm that had pulled him closer. As I said, I could play his game. I turned to the bartender, making sure my body was turned to Charlie or whoever the hell he was. To hell with honest identities.

"I want two shots of whatever is your strongest on this guy's," I nodded in Charlie's direction with a smirk aching for the touch of alcohol, "bill."

The two glass cups arrived in front of me and I immediately downed them both, feeling the way the alcohol traveled down my throat. It burned and damn did it not taste great, but it worked. This part of Q's was all types of illegal; the back section which admitted only particular clients was regulation free. I was pretty damn sure five murders had taken place within the last month and, as far as I knew, those five people were "missing." The alcohol was stronger, more pure, and it worked much faster.

I rolled my neck, letting myself adjust to the alcohol and the music, the two terms meaning near the same to me. I turned to Charlie who looked more than a little turned on and saw a specific movement in the back. _Rae_.

She was looking straight at me rubbing her middle and pointer finger against her thumb in the money symbol. I rolled my eyes. I'd get to that sure enough.

"So, Charlie, shall we dance once more?" I guided him back into the crowd, not a single ounce of guilt or regret into me for what I would do next. I did what I needed to survive and if all it was was to mess with a boy like him, I'd be more than happy to do it.

I fell back into the pace of the music, my body swaying even more. My eyes flashed with the colors of the spotlight, intoxicating me. I reached to him, pushing us together so that my chest was against his body and our faces were against one another. I grabbed the back of his neck and smashed his lips against mine, pulling him closer and drinking him in feverishly. His lips moved, smiling, before taking me on. He was lost in me, frantically pulling me closer which only made the job easier. I wrapped one of my legs against his, pushing my body weight on him. This was too easy.

I pushed him away, snapping him a quick wink. "Not bad, Gardner.

"Be right back. Stay here and," I smirked, "we can finish what we started."

Too bad I was a dirty liar.

I moved through the crowd, not too drunk that I couldn't find my way to the back door. I pushed the door open, welcoming the cold air inundating my feverishly warm arms and body.

I snuck through the dim lighting, my breath steadying. Jermaine knew what Rae, Caitlyn, and I did and, although he didn't stop it, he had warned us many times before never to get caught. Q was a haven for rich, married guys who were too ignorant to hide their possessions away from the hungry hands of, well, us.

"Riley!" Rae whispered harshly, pulling me to our little inlet. Caitlyn's hushed chuckling could be heard and, seeing their faces, I must've been too tipsy to remember where we were supposed to meet up. At that rate, I would've been walking my way into Albany.

"Do you have it?"

I pulled out the wallet from my back pocket, opening it and pulling out the cash. A pile of cash followed my hands, the green like honey to my eyes. Rae's eyes widened and I could feel the two watching me as I kept counting the bills, feeling the excitement grow as each number grew larger and larger.

"$420."

I did all but completely burst out laughing. "What kind of person brings $420 to a freaking sketchy club like Q?"

Caitlyn shook her head, but I could see the traces of amusement on her face. This was one of the largest counts we had had in months since, apparently, people had wisened up in the last five months.

"So with the amount we agreed on for this shift yesterday, three quarters goes to you and the other to the group. So," Rae shoved sixteen bills into my hand, "I say we treat ourselves to a relaxing, no shift, ice cream respite."

I laughed with them, pocketing the rest of the change. We never threw out the wallets where we took them; someone would be suspicious. Plus, the leather of his wallet would surely be worth something. This kid, whoever he was, was downright filthy with money. Too bad he was too dumb to hold onto it.

As our laughs died down and we got ready to leave, I glanced around. Something wasn't right. Someone wasn't here.

I looked around once more. And once more. And once more. I ran out of the hidden place frantically with Rae and Caitlyn following my footsteps, searching the area.

I turned to them, my eyes widened. Maybe I was just being tipsy. Maybe the shift list was wrong. "Where's Amanda?!"

Their eyes widened with realization and, at that moment, we all knew something was really wrong. Not one time had any of the us ever failed to meet back in the alleyway. Not once, and Amanda was the best. Sure, Rae and Caitlyn acted as if they didn't care for Amanda but all of us knew Amanda was the best at her job.

"Tell me I'm tipsy and I must've read the list wrong. Because you guys are 100% sober. So tell me I'm wrong." I said, my words becoming more frantic as each word passed. We were a group of eight; we looked after one another. If one of us was gone...foul play was most definitely involved.

Rae and Caitlyn exchanged looks, their movements slow. They shook their heads, the full force of the realization hitting them simultaneously. _Shit shit shit_. Everyone knew Q was dangerous; we only did business there because that was the only club willing to take us with an abundance of rich clients.

As I spun my head around searching, I saw a glimpse of sequins on a pink fabric. I began to run, my adrenaline clearing my head and somehow keeping me from falling flat on my face. The last time I had seen Amanda she had been wearing that exact dress. I had commented about the length of the dress she had originally chosen herself and she had quickly changed into that more decent, modest dress. She had repeatedly been targeted by a bunch of regulars to the club and I hadn't wanted her to get into trouble.

Every second passed longer and longer as I scrambled to get to what I really, really prayed wasn't her. I had heard and witnessed so many stories of what happened to prostitutes, but we were far from that. There was no reason for anyone to harm us. If we stole something too valuable, we would make sure to give it back to the person whether it was to put it on their car or pretend we found it on the ground. Never had we taken something that could be used against one of our targets. The mantra stayed in my head, repeating itself over and over in a fruitless attempt to call myself. The adrenaline spiked within all parts of my body, overwhelming any response telling me not to jump to conclusions because _damn_ my conclusions were almost always so fucking close to the truth.

I turned the corner of the railway, spinning myself around to see-

My hand flew to my mouth and, if Rae and Caitlyn weren't right there behind me, I would've hurled. The dread in my stomach dropped so suddenly it felt as though my heart itself had stopped, and the levy holding the horror and despair within me was released, swinging on a crash course.

"Oh my god." Rae inhaled deeply as if she was trying to understand but was utterly failing at it. I couldn't understand myself.

From where I was standing, everything looked fine. Amanda's wisps of brown hair were laid out and her eyes were closed so peacefully it looked as though she could've been in a deep slumber on the uncomfortable gravel. Her face was as beautiful as ever and her olive skin was still colored in a way that made boys and men alike crumble at her feet.

She was fine in every way except for the one obviating fact. _There was a hole in her chest._

There was a fucking hole, a fucking circle, carved out of her chest. It was huge, as if something had taken a chunk out of her with a cookie cutter, and it was unmistakable. Where her chest used to be was a hole and where that was there was a pool of blood overfilling as every second passed. Whatever was left of her clothes was tattered and scattered around, exposing parts of her body that no decent person would ever want shown.

I could hear sirens and distant cars, and somehow, _somehow_ , I managed to pull my eyes away from the gaping hole. All I could think about was how it wasn't possible, how it couldn't have happened, and how this _had_ to be a coincidence. Amanda couldn't be dead and she _especially_ couldn't die like that, in such a gruesome and horrid way. She was far from nice, but no would ever want her dead. She was good inside, she really was, and the world could not have lost her. Maybe this was another person or maybe the alcohol had really gotten to me and I was hallucinating. _It had to be_.

The sirens grew closer and I knew I had to leave. No matter how horrible it seemed, _how terrifying_ , and _how wrong_ it seemed to leave Amanda like this, I knew we didn't have a choice.

"We need to go," I said, my eyes finally meeting Caitlyn's. She was crying, somehow having the shock of the minute's events processed. Rae was shaking her head vigorously, as if she couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that one of us was not invincible, and I could tell she was in the midst of having a breakdown. I was the leader of the group; I had to get them out of here while I still had the energy to and while I could fight off having my own breakdown.

I grabbed their hands, dragging them until they found their own legs and began to run with me. All I felt against the cold was numb, so numb to any feeling whatsoever, and each second passed made the shield suppressing my feelings wear down one more. I ran until I couldn't keep my legs from wobbling from my heels and, once I fell and somehow didn't feel the ground scraping against my skin, I shoved my heels off and ran barefoot against the alleyways I had committed to memory. I couldn't hear the cries of Caitlyn, the pleas Rae spoke to _fucking slow down_ , and I couldn't see the night lights as anything but red. The images of Amanda kept falling into my mind, of her last moments as she struggled and what they must've done to her.

" _Fuck,_ Riley!" Rae's hand grabbed my wrist and she spun me around. "We can't just leave her there!"

Amanda was long gone, taken by the police by sirens we were too far to hear. _Her body-oh my god_ that was all she was by now. No soul, no laughs, nothing. All that was left was a dead and rotting corpse. "You don't think I know that? But she's dead! And we can't do anything anymore!" I yelled, the wind slapping me in the face and the levy of emotions finally swinging loose. It felt as if something was uncurling within me, a feeling so confusing that all I could think was too many emotions at once. I could feel the anger, could feel the despair, and, worst of all, I could feel the same helplessness as I did all those years ago. Because this really was the same, the same nightmare on the same day as when the last one occurred.

"She wouldn't want us to leave her there!" Rae screamed, neither of us paying attention to what was around us. "Amanda would want us to give her a proper send off. She would hate us forever for being such cowards!"

"What do you want me to say? The police were going to be there any minute. We put our hands on her and now we are murder suspects!" I yelled back, my voice cracking. "If we are murder suspects and they find out that we did all this business at Q then everything is in vain! All those years of hiding who we were will be gone and then, sooner or later, people will come to collect!"

I turned sharply to Caitlyn and pointed at her harshly. "Caitlyn's dad will come to get her all the way from Wyoming and you and I both know that she won't ever come back if he takes her! She's survived so long from her emancipation because she found us, because she started us!

"And you, Rae, you! You as well as I know that Aiden will come for us and when that happens we might as well be dead. No, _we'll be screaming to die_." She flinched back and, for a second, I felt the remorse popping up like a neon sign above my head, but I could hardly keep my head level.

Rae nodded slowly, her face clearly reluctant but the fire dying within her.

"What do we do?" Rae said with clear traces of exhaustion.

I had to no idea what to do. I was completely out of cards, completely out of ideas. Somehow had not only killed one of our own, but had killed them in the most impossible and gruesome way. On this day.

"Someone clearly knows us," my voice wavered, "so we need to clear out as soon as possible. We go back just to grab the money. We grab the money and a valuable in a backpack and we leave as fast as we can because chances are they know where we sleep."

I made up my plan as I spoke, my body and mind running on pure adrenaline and survival instincts. All three of us knew how it was to be hunted and for so long we had thought we had left those days behind but, apparently we hadn't.

The time to the apartment seemed like a blur. All I remembered was clutching onto that special dagger strapped to my thigh so hard I bled and how every single corner made my heart race faster than it had for a long era. I couldn't see anything but my life going by and those fucking memories of Amanda and how this could not be a coincidence, and I sure as hell could not _feel_ anything.

 _One day you're going to break and, when that day come, god have mercy on every poor soul who comes in your death march._

* * *

I couldn't wake up, not because I was too exhausted, but because I hadn't slept a wink. Rae and I sat in the silence at a distance so close that it couldn't have been shoulder to shoulder, but soul to soul. Caitlyn was still asleep and the clock only read 5:00, so staff wouldn't pour in until 6:30.

"Do you think it's risky that we're here? If they knew our routes, they'd know that we go to this school." Rae sighed, her voice devoid of anything besides the traces of sadness and guilt. I knew her too well. The first reaction she had for anything was to feel that guilt for that was her grounding emotion, an extremely pernicious one at that. "Maybe we should've just left-"

"Trust me, this is the right decision," I moved my hand to hers, grasping it tightly. "We know this school better than anyone and we can get through this."

"How are you so sure of everything?"

I shook my head, a small tug of the corners of my lips lifting them ever so weakly. "I'm not. But it's the only way we are going to survive. We've survived worse than this."

Rae grasped my hand tighter. "How can someone hurt her like that? Like I'm serious, how the hell can they push that," she choked, "how can they make that h-hole in her? And...hurt her? I mean I can't imagine-I can't imagine how anyone would do that. That's not possible. This is a dream-"

"It's not impossible."

Silence and tension filled the air between us.

"How do you know?" Her voice was so small as if she knew the answer, but that she really didn't want to acknowledge it.

"The first murder of John Quincy Street." I almost couldn't hear her breath still.

She turned her head to face me but I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes. I couldn't do it if her eyes were pleading for more, to know and to realize that this could be a nightmare.

"The night before the John Quincy Massacre." I told the story or the limited bits I could. I could still see the images flashing in the back of my eyelids, see so much blood pouring from so many bodies that the only thing I could think was that the school had become a pool of despair and death. It rotted of death.

I remembered the first murder so well. John Quincy wasn't on the best street, far from it really, but never had it been the worst neighborhood. My parents had moved there because of the weight of security and price and, once they entered the apartment complex, they had fallen in love with it. It was so strange to think that if they hadn't decided to buy the most perfect apartment, they wouldn't be dead. There were so many ifs and buts, yet nothing could change the fact. They'd never breath in that cherished apartment ever again. Hadn't for six years.

The first murder hit everyone hard.

I remembered going to the ice cream store with that smile seemingly three lives removed. I was holding Maya's hand, swinging it out and about in that goofy way we used to back in fifth grade. Our bodies were wrapped in little coats my mother had bought us for Christmas and even though we were colored so vastly different, I couldn't help but think that we were the closest twins could be. We walked, hand in hand, bracing the cold that hit us head first. The yellow lights stole the color from our faces, and there was nothing more beautiful than the concrete jungle of our neighborhood. One of Maya's friends had invited us for ice cream at her dad's shop or, to be more exact, had invited Maya but Maya was mine and I was hers and if one was to invite one, they were sure to be bringing the other.

Yet, there was something so wrong. There was no wind, no breeze, even as I tried to walk faster to catch it. The air was so still as if it was too busy listening with its many ears, listening having been tipped off. I could sense something tingling within my veins, something like a little runner sprinting up my veins from the place right below my left rib. I had looked over to Maya, quickly exchanging looks, and I knew she had felt it too. Something was off.

We had no intention to see what was wrong; after all, we were just little girls who had been warned by our mothers and my father about the danger of the night. We had heard tales of the monsters waiting with gripping claws, ready to tear into our flesh and shred it into pieces. I had always been so irrationally terrified of them, been terrified that one day they'd sink their claws so deep into my heart that I'd forget everything I loved. I'd forget the taste of ice cream or the smooth hair of unicorns in my dreams, in Rileytown. In those days, after all, that was all I had to worry about.

We kept walking with only a sixth sense but we all too quickly blamed it on superstition. After all, it must've been. Maya was never one to believe in fortune telling nonsense and, as Maya's friend, I wasn't to believe in it either. Screw being a terrified human being who had a phobia of whatever someone told me to be afraid of.

When I turned the corner, I almost felt something shove me back. My shoulders were pushed back by an invisible force, but I regained my footing and stood up next to Maya, continuing to walk as I knew we would.

 _Crunch_.

My foot landed on a puddle and an object. A crunching sound came from under my feet and, as I slowly looked down I screamed.

"When I looked down, I saw this girl and I could not forget how she looked like for the rest of my life." I paused, my head shaking as if I could possible shake the memories out of my mind. "There was that same gaping hole in her chest, the flesh just torn. There was blood running from her legs where fingertips had embedded themselves into her skin. But the worst part was her face. She was beautiful, like a delicate China doll. Her eyes were so haunted, not peaceful, and I could see the crease from the expression she had right before they drilled the hell out of her."

"What happened after?"

"Nothing." _Liar._ "Maya and I stood there for a few minutes and then called the police. When the police came, the city needed more than a few vomit bags."

Rae seemed to accept my answer, not pushing for anything more, and we sat there, basking in the silence and tranquility. Neither one of us brought up the losses we had suffered yesterday night for, I knew, if we did all of us would unravel. It'd be like a ball of yarn. Once one strand got free, the whole cord, the whole lifeline, fell exposed to the world.

"What do we do once school is over?" She almost whispered, her breaths louder than her words themselves. "We should leave. There's no way we can stay. We need to disappear before someone makes a connection between...between _her_ and us."

"They won't. We'll cover all our tracks and once these couple months are over, we'll be in college and they won't be able to get us. Plus," I touched the pocket in my jacket, "if they do, we'll be ready."

* * *

The bell rung just as I slipped into my wooden chair. Ms. Pelina was up in front, swaying her really envious large ass in front of Brandon McNair as she wrote on the board. I had no idea how she was the school's sole AP Vector Calc teacher (or how the school even afforded a Vector Calc teacher) at 22 and how she managed being a teacher which required unimaginable patience, being a young adult who only just turned an eligible age for alcohol, being an intelligent graduate currently working on her postgraduate degree, and being an absolute beauty at the same time. She could recall trivial minutiae in a split second, formulas through advanced Calc and Statistics, and weirdly specific history facts whenever her boyfriend, Mr. Ramirez who taught AP US History, asked her. I could barely recall where I put my backpack half the time (three quarters of the time it was on my back).

I heard an obnoxious whistle from the door. "Looks like someone had a late night."

I rolled my eyes. I didn't want to deal with Matt's crap today or, for that matter, any day but especially today and I especially didn't need him pointing to the protruding bags under my eyes. I already knew they were there or, in truth, had felt them weighing down earlier.

He took the seat behind me and I groaned. I had been debating taking that seat for the same reason that I wanted to strangle someone because of but Pick-His-Nose Richard was back again and was flicking boogers to his right and I wasn't about to be in his way. God knows I didn't want to see or feel that. _God I hope Richard's nose acts up today and showers all over Matt._

"So who was it?" He said. I felt a poke in my back and I snapped around, grabbing his wrist before he could recede. His eyes widened, but he quickly recovered into a small smirk as I let go of him. His friends on either side of him were completely quiet as if they were waiting for a cue to beat me up or something as they had done with that Chinese boy last week. As if they could before I shoved a dagger up their...I'm not going to finish that. "Was it Dylan? He was feeling especially bright today. Or what about Kraemer? I saw him high fiving his buddies too early in the mornin' for him not to have hooked up with someone good-"

"Matt Cavanaugh. Let's see you use your mouth for something other than sucking and explain this problem? Or is that a problem?" Ms. Pelina said, her voice crisp and clear. I snickered as he walked past, his face too red for me to hold in laughter. I had an unimaginable amount of respect for Ms. Pelina in those moments.

He faced the class and took a purple Expo marker before turning to the board. I knew Matt wasn't dumb despite being the ruler of the school; in fact, he was far from it. He was the only one I knew who practically mirrored my class schedule despite being only one grade ahead of me as a junior. Plus, the fact that he was in Vector and not desperately failing it was a statement of his own.

"So, children, let's all sit down for a casual explanation of this child's play of a problem. See this graph?" He drew a quadratic graph and I immediately put my head in my hands. I knew where he was going with this and I wasn't particularly interested in seeing him draw his shit. Literally.

"It goes here and here before-"

I heard a choking sound before I could see Matt's face seize up. He was grasping his chest desperately, almost _clawing_ at it as wretched sounds came from his mouth. His face grew red to purple in half a second and I could see the pure terror in his face. And he was looking straight at me.

The class erupted in sounds as people struggled to get to Matt, but I knew that wouldn't be of any use. He needed space, he needed someone to literally knock the wind out, or into, him and none of his useless buddies would be able to do that without hurting him in his delicate position. I saw Ms. Pelina call for help and start for the door to alert someone.

"Everyone move out of the way!" I yelled, forcibly pushing away the tall jocks crowding the path. When no one moved, I yelled once more. "Get the hell out of my way or he'll freaking die!"

" _He's choking, Maya! What do we do?!"_

" _Get the hell out of my way people!"_

I finally pushed through to the clearing and stammered to him. Now what?

 _Her hands grabbed his back and stood slightly to the side of him._

I stepped to the side.

 _She used one hand to steady him on his chest and leaned him forward before lifting her other arm up and slamming it down once. And once more. And once more._

I slammed my hand down five times, waiting for something to happen. _Anything_.

I cursed when he kept choking. This was the standard procedure when something was blocking someone's airway and if Matt's airways were not blocked, I didn't know what the hell they were. He didn't have asthma and, even if he did, asthma attacks didn't take this retching form. No, this was something else. And by the way his face was turning, I knew I only had seconds to act. Mere seconds.

" _Maya, nothing's happening!" Her face gritted in frustration and her forehead was beaded with sweat. She was absolutely stumped, and we both knew it. She prepared to slam her hand once more, but her other hand slipped. He was heavy, too heavy for her small body to hold._

 _I quickly caught him before he could fall. The adrenaline within my body allowed me to hold him up even though his weight was practically crushing my frame. My hands intertwined with his shirt and scratched against his skin and I could feel the heavy and fast beats of his heart. When I looked up, I could see the sheer panic written across his face and oh god I would give anything to make sure no one looked like that again. I could practically smell his fear._

 _I pressed my hands against him, using all my energy to keep him in that upright position Maya was screaming at me to do. I gasped as I saw light emerge, a faint glow from his body I knew I was probably hallucinating._

It was a long shot, but I didn't have much of a choice. I hated Matt, yes, but I could not stand for him to die if I could do something about it. Whatever help Ms. Pelina was getting wasn't getting here fast enough, and the seconds were narrowing down to milliseconds.

I shoved him to the wall and pressed my hands against him, praying to whatever God was out there that something would work. I knew it wouldn't work, that there was no way that my hands could do something special like that, and I could see his face moments from collapsing. I tore my gaze from his face and back to my hands. _Oh my god_.

The skin under was glowing again under his white shirt.

 _Suddenly, his gasps stopped, his sounds were pushed out, and he was wheezing with breath, struggling to make up for all the breath he had missed. We looked over for our teacher who had been scrambling for the door to assure her that everything was ok. I looked up from my position on the ground to find her, but all I saw was empty air. When I looked down, I saw her on the floor._

I ran to Ms. Pelina, the panic and adrenaline within my body thrusting my body everywhere. I had no coordination, no sense of direction except to get to her. My vision was a blur.

" _She fainted!" I yelled as I abandoned Adrian on the floor and scrambled to Ms. Saki. There was something so strange about the way her face was tightened, as if there were metal wrinkles in her youthful face. I touched her cheek to get her to wake up, my hands about to grasp her shoulders next, before I heard a crumbling sound from where my hand once was._

Where Ms. Pelina once lay was a pile of ashes.

* * *

This chapter was so, so excessively long! The rest of the chapters will be shorter from here on out, but this was really integral to the overall big picture and the story's background information. Sorry for how slow this chapter was! I wish I could've sped it up, but again it's really important.

Stay with me on this one and you'll see the GMW gang in the next chapter! This chapter and the one after will be jam packed with action and angst to set up the rest of the story and, after that, it will have a lot more humor! Riley might seem a little off right now, but you'll see her actual personality come out a little later as you sort of saw at the end when she saved Matt's life. All of this will start to make sense as the story develops more. Love you all!

Xoxo,

Kadecca


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